NOVPUBChapter 348 -348: Wan Peng Wan Li
The bus picked up many survivors heading back to the base midway through the journey.
Wan Li explained to the group that they had allme out from the base together, using the bus and gasoline as shared resources. They were dispatched in groups to kill zombies and search for Crystal Cores, each with designated boarding spots.
That made sense; she had just been wondering if running such a big bus with only a few people on it wouldn’t bensidered a waste of gasoline.
“Wan Peng, who are these people?”
As more people boarded, the bus became fully seated. Someone noticed Su Jin and the others and asked Wan Peng while pointing at their seats.
“Brother Li, their car broke down, so we gave them a lift along the way. They can rest at our base, but they have tontinue to the base in City E afterward,” Wan Peng explained.
Wan Peng, who had expected everyone to weme Su Jin and the others, found the bus suddenly go silent after he spoke.
“Little Wan, since they aren’tming to join our base, what about the bus fare…”
Brother Li started to say and then glanced over at Su Jin and her group.
“Sorry about this, but as you know, in this apocalypse, vehicles and gasoline are hard tome by. Our bus and fuel have beenllectively gathered by our team. It’s not that we can’t take you, but you’ll have to pay for the gasoline,” Brother Li said to Lu Hao, who seemed to be the leader of their group.
“Brother Li, the base isn’t far, and it’s not easy for them, what with the elderly and children. I think we can let it slide,” Wan Peng interjected, feeling embarrassed by Brother Li’s words.
“Brother Li, how much? We’llver it for them,” Wan Li said without arguing, simply inquiring about thest.
Brother Li looked over at the number of people in Su Jin’s group and said to Wan Li, “Seven people, 70 Crystal Cores.”
Lin Xiuyuan almostuldn’t help but stand up in response. Seventy Crystal Cores? Was this a daylight robbery?
Lu Hao held him down; they were still on the bus, and it wasn’t the right time for anflict.
However, they quickly noticed that the people on the bus didn’t seem tonsider 70 Crystal Cores a large amount after hearing the price. Wan Li also seemed to think it was reasonable and beganunting out Crystal Cores from her bag.
“No need, we just killed some zombies. We’ll pay for the Crystal Cores ourselves,” Su Jin said, pretending to take out a handful of Crystal Cores from her backpack and handing them over to Brother Li, who gave her a look she found very umfortable—as if they were intentionally taking advantage of everyone on the bus.
Seventy Crystal Cores, sheuld afford that.
Before Wan Liuld stop her, Brother Li had already taken the Crystal Cores.
Afterllecting the Crystal Cores, Brother Li’s displeasure seemed to fade when he looked at their group.
“Xiao Cheng, make a note in the ledger, these Crystal Cores will still be divided among everyone later on,” Brother Li called out loudly to someone sitting in the back, as if worried no one on the bus would hear.
“Sorry you had to chip in when hitching a ride,” Wan Li said apologetically.
“No problem, it’s only right,” Su Jin replied, feeling even more that something was off about the base, and now understanding why no one hadmplained about the price of 70 Crystal Cores—the Crystal Cores seemed to be eventually distributed among their team anyway.
Nie Qing had a smile on her face the entire time watching everyone on the bus, finding the real world far more entertaining than any TV drama—the people here seemed much more interesting.
Freedom Dawn Base wasn’t far from the highway rest stop where they had previously rested; it was just a half-hour’s drive away.
When they arrived, the group found that the so-called Freedom Dawn Base was located in a university. However, the surrounding walls had been significantly fortified and raised.
“This place used to be a university town, it’s big enough and there are plenty of houses. Not only the dormitoriesuld ammodate people, even classrooms and cafeterias were in use. We even held a celebration party in one of the cafeterias before.”
After getting out of the car, Wan Peng walked and introduced the place to the others.
Local Tyrant Gold kept sticking his head out to stare at Ah Wang, and Ah Wang also wanted to sniff at Local Tyrant Gold, but unfortunately, he wasn’t tall enough and Local Tyrant Gold kept hiding inside the backpack.
True to expectation, the entrance of the Freedom Dawn Base didn’t require them to sign in; they were simply allowed through after a quick temperature check.
Su Jin noticed that the temperature guns held by the staff at the entrance were turned off, not displaying anything…
“Haha! I, Lin Xiuyuan, never had the chance to attend university, but I do have the chance to visit one now. This university used to be quite famous too,” Lin Xiuyuan said while pointing at a stone stele engraved with the university’s name.
Only, the stele was spattered with much Dark Blood, and a few desiccated zombie bodies had been discarded behind it…
“Doesn’t anyone clean up around here…?”
Li Xiuying felt umfortable after seeing this; howuld these people feel at ease living here?
“Ahaha, cleaning up the base also depends on everyone’s willingness to do so. These past few days, I guess people have been too busy,” Wan Peng explained.
Su Jin just smiled and didn’t say anything. 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓹𝓾𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
An unmanaged base not being cleaned was normal.
“Let’s take you to where you’ll be staying first. We have many vacant rooms over there and the beds are already made,” Wan Li pointed towards a dormitory building not far away.
“Great, that would be very helpful,” they responded.
The dormitory building where Wan Li and Wan Peng lived was probably a girls’ dormitory of that school. The inside was relatively clean and even the blood splatter on the walls had beenvered with paper.
Bang!
A crashing sound and the noise of objects falling came from therridor.
“Thief! Everybody, help catch the thief!”
A woman’s voice echoed from therridor.
They looked towards the hallway to see a woman with disheveled hair, pulling a child behind her, running out. But her cries didn’t seem to draw anyone’s attention, and they only saw a figure jumping out from the end of therridor’s window…
“Woof woof woof!”
Ah Wang barked loudly in the direction where the person escaped.
The woman, dragging the child, ran to the end of the hallway, checked the situation outside, then sat down on the ground,vered her face and broke into loud sobs, while the child stood in front of her, seemingmpletely lost.
Nobody appeared in the hallway still; Wan Li also sighed and explained to everyone.
Theft had bme rampant in the base at some point, and the thieves were apparently a few speed element ability users. Even when they were spotted, they would run away without a trace. Moreover, nobody in the base dealt with these issues, so everyone had grown accustomed to it.
“You’d rather put on several more locks than think of ways to catch those thieves?”
Lin Xiuyuan pointed at a door that was secured with six or seven locks and asked.
“There’s nothing we can do. We caught two of them before, but these people are like rats; you can never catch them all,” Wan Li said as she shrugged, opening her backpack to take out a dried piece of bread, heading towards the crying woman.
“Sis, that’s your dinner for tonight!” Wan Peng called out to Wan Li.
“It’s okay, I don’t really like eating that anyway,” Wan Li turned her head and smiled back at Wan Peng.
